The beginning of demonstrations this morning outside of the Qunxian Building of the Legislative Yuan. Photo credit: Brian Hioe

And indeed, protests today were intensive. Demonstrations began this morning at 9 AM, coinciding with the start of the review. Although demonstrators were not large in number, perhaps numbering no more than between one hundred and two hundred people, protests were intense, seeing several sharp clashes with police. It is believed by many, including workers within the Legislative Yuan, that the review was scheduled for early morning on a weekday in order to try and minimize the size of protest, seeing as many would be working then. Likewise, accentuating charges of undemocratic actions by the DPP in attempting to force through these labor changes, public hearings regarding the changes were cancelled, opening up the accusation that the DPP is attempting to use “black box” means lacking transparency to try and force the bill through.

Photo credit: Brian Hioe

The amount of hours of overtime that workers can be made to work has also been increased to 138 hours over a three month period and new regulations that allow for the deferral of unused vacation days until a subsequent could possibly be used to ensure that workers could be made to indefinitely postpone vacation days. Likewise, these changes will not restore public holidays originally cut by the Tsai administration. These reforms take place in spite of that Taiwanese workers already work the fourth longest working hours in the world, according to the Ministry of Labor.

Photo credit: Brian Hioe

Demonstrations this morning began outside of the Legislative Yuan’s Qunxian Building on Jinan Road before moving to the entrance of the Legislative Yuan on Qingdao East Road. Subsequently, clashes broke out with police, with attempts to throw eggs at the Legislative Yuan building and attempts by demonstrators to force their way into the Legislative Yuan, during which police appear to have set off a fire extinguisher to try and impede demonstrators. Further clashes ensued when police eased off demonstrators on three sides and attempted to prevent demonstrators from marching around the Legislative Yuan, demonstrators eventually relocating to outside the building where the review of the Legislative Yuan was to take place. Another attempt to storm the Legislative Yuan took place shortly after 3:30, with three individuals getting into the Legislative Yuan and being arrested shortly afterwards. Demonstrators later returned to in front of the Qunxian Building.

Throughout this riot police were notably heavy in number, outnumbering demonstrators by two to three times. In many cases, riot police did not attempt to block off the road for demonstrators, leading to cases in which buses or trucks from nearby construction came dangerously close to demonstrators. At other times, riot police attempted to restrict the freedom of movement of demonstrators entirely, as observed in attempting to not allow demonstrators from marching around the Legislative Yuan. Reportedly, over 1,000 police officers were mobilized today.

Speakers and participants at the demonstration drew from the full range of post-Sunflower Movement civil society. Apart from the presence of labor groups from all across Taiwan and many different industries, led by the Taoyuan-based labor groups who have been the organizers of many of the Labor protests against the Tsai administration in the past year regarding the issue, participants also included Third Force parties such as the Social Democratic Party, Green Party, and Free Taiwan Party, as well as NGOs including the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline, Awakening Foundation, Taiwanese independence groups, and even some members of the pan-Blue anti-pension reform demonstrators referring to themselves as the “800 Heroes”, despite their political disagreements with Taiwanese civil society groups largely in favor of pension reform and leaning towards independence. Apart from speeches, organizers also led demonstrators in singing traditional anthems of the Taiwanese labor movement such as the “Workers’ Fight Song”, originally adapted from a Korean labor anthem.

Attempts to charge into the Legislative Yuan on Zhongshan South Road around 3:30 PM. Photo credit: Brian Hioe

In the meantime, demonstrators have called for further protest to take place at nightfall, when more workers have gotten off work and vowing that this will be a fight to the finish. It may be a long night of protest ahead, then, if protests this morning and in the early afternoon have already been highly intensive thus far.

Brian Hioe was one of the founding editors of New Bloom. He is a freelance writer on social movements and politics, and occasional translator. A New York native and Taiwanese-American, he has an MA in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University and graduated from New York University with majors in History, East Asian Studies, and English Literature. He was Democracy and Human Rights Service Fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy from 2017 to 2018.

About New Bloom

New Bloom is an online magazine covering activism and youth politics in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific, founded in Taiwan in 2014 in the wake of the Sunflower Movement. We seek to put local voices in touch with international discourse, beginning with Taiwan.